In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
And her hallway
Moves
Like the ocean
Moves
At the head of the river
At the source of the sea
Sitting here now, in this bar for hours
Trying to write it down
Fitting in hard, with harder to come
Trying to fight it
Down the river there's a ship will carry you
Down river, down stream
Down the river there's a ship will carry the
Dream
Dream of the flood
Down the river there's a ship will carry the
Dream of the flood
And her hallway...
As the water come rushing over
As the water come rushing in
As the water come rushing over
Flood...Flood...
Push the glass, stain the glass
Push the writer to the wall
It may come but it will pass
Some say we will fall
Dream of the flood...
Flood...
And her hallway...
Oh, maybe, in terms of surrender
On a backcloth of lashes and eyes
In a flood of your tears, in sackcloth
And ashes, and ashes, and ashes, and ashes
And ashes, and ashes, and lies...
And her hallway...
Like...
As the water come rushing in
As the water come rushing over
Sitting here now, in this bar for hours
While these strange men rent strange flowers
I'll be picking up your petals in another few hours
In the metal and blood, in the scent and mascara
On a backcloth of lashes and stars
In a flood of your tears, in sackcloth
And ashes, and ashes, and secondhand passion
And stolen guitars
And her hallway...
As the water come rushing in
(Like the sea)
As the water come rushing over
(Dream of the flood)
In a flood of your tears, in sackcloth
And ashes, and ashes
And ashes, and ashes
And ashes, and ashes
And ashes, and ashes, and lies...
As the water come rushing in, rushing in
At the head of the river
At the source of the sea
And her hallway...
Like...
Flood...
Moves
Like the ocean
Moves
At the head of the river
At the source of the sea
Sitting here now, in this bar for hours
Trying to write it down
Fitting in hard, with harder to come
Trying to fight it
Down the river there's a ship will carry you
Down river, down stream
Down the river there's a ship will carry the
Dream
Dream of the flood
Down the river there's a ship will carry the
Dream of the flood
And her hallway...
As the water come rushing over
As the water come rushing in
As the water come rushing over
Flood...Flood...
Push the glass, stain the glass
Push the writer to the wall
It may come but it will pass
Some say we will fall
Dream of the flood...
Flood...
And her hallway...
Oh, maybe, in terms of surrender
On a backcloth of lashes and eyes
In a flood of your tears, in sackcloth
And ashes, and ashes, and ashes, and ashes
And ashes, and ashes, and lies...
And her hallway...
Like...
As the water come rushing in
As the water come rushing over
Sitting here now, in this bar for hours
While these strange men rent strange flowers
I'll be picking up your petals in another few hours
In the metal and blood, in the scent and mascara
On a backcloth of lashes and stars
In a flood of your tears, in sackcloth
And ashes, and ashes, and secondhand passion
And stolen guitars
And her hallway...
As the water come rushing in
(Like the sea)
As the water come rushing over
(Dream of the flood)
In a flood of your tears, in sackcloth
And ashes, and ashes
And ashes, and ashes
And ashes, and ashes
And ashes, and ashes, and lies...
As the water come rushing in, rushing in
At the head of the river
At the source of the sea
And her hallway...
Like...
Flood...
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Flood I begins with a quiet guitar drone, and on the album this is mixed in with the closing Sturm und Drang Wagnerian chant of Mother Russia rain down! from Mother Russia. Mother Russia's radioactive rain (and whether this is viewed literally or figuratively as a hail of Soviet missiles raining down is largely irrelevant) can therefore be seen as the cause of the Flood.
"And her hallway..."
Halls and hallways feature at especially dramatic moments in some of The Sisters' more libidinous songs. Some Kind of Stranger has "I'll settle any time for unknown footsteps in the hall outside", in Ribbons "her lovers queued up in the hallway/I heard them scratching at the door". Tenders are invited from sound Freudian psychoanalysts to sort this one out.
"At the head of the river/At the source of the sea"
Hamburg, at the head of the river Elbe.
"strange men rent strange flowers"
"What happens in Hamburg is that, at two in the morning, these Turks come round the bars selling roses to couples who aren't quite couples yet but might be by half past two. I rather liked the idea that these couples could rent these flowers until they became couples then they could give them back and they would be recyclable. The Turks would make more money and the couples wouldn't get burdened with these thorny things. Actually, I think it's a metaphor for ephemeral love." [ATF] -Andrew Eldritch
"Sackcloth and Ashes"
A medieval form of penitence, popular with monks and other religious types, which involved wearing sackcloth and presumably doing something with ashes. Collins Dictionary has it as "public form of extreme grief".
"Stolen guitars"
"The bitter comes out better on a stolen guitar/you're the blessed, we're the Spiders From Mars" -Hang On To Yourself, David Bowie Eldritch is a noted Bowie fan and often cites seeing Starman (also from Ziggy Stardust) on Top of the Pops as the reason why he became a rock star.
Source: geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/1217/
I'm always particularly captivated by the 'on a backcloth' verses... love the rhyme stuff, and of course we have Eldritch's usual wordplay... 'lashes' originally presented as 'eyelashes' ('lashes and eyes,' 'scent and mascara') but with the reference to 'sackcloth and ashes' as a form of grief or pentinence, it hints slightly at 'lashes' as whipping. And maybe the suggestion that all the regret--lashes, tears, sackcloth and ashes, secondhand passion--could be washed away by the waters of the flood.
I think that this is a song on a couple of levels - the flood is a metaphor for passion, but also a physical flood following a nuclear exchange (on the album, this song runs straight on from Dominion/Mother Russia, which ends with Eldritch imploring "Mother Russia rain down, down. down!").
Cheery, eh?
Oh! I always thought it was about heroin. he's waiting around in this crappy bar until she comes with the drugs so they can shoot up. The flood is the rush washing away self. I think it's about addiction and desire. he loves her and he loves the drug, but there is guilt and self loathing too.
As we all know, lyrics for The Sisters are laden with literary, lyrical, philosophical, theological and other types of references. I like them for that, and have long found myself reading up on topics that sometimes give me the source that Eldritch is referring to. For example, as a young teen listening to Floodland, I had yet to hear Dylan sing of "Stuck inside of Memphis" so when I first heard that song by Dylan it gave me a little more context for Elritch\'s wonderfully atmospheric words. \n\nFor years I thought his "sackcloth and ashes" were a reference to Savonrola (sackcloth) from Florence. \n\nToday reading up about Ninevah an ancient city, I side tracked onto the story of Jonah from the bible and found a direct quote (on wiki - duh! I have some shoddy sources :) ) \n\nThat quote: "The king of Nineveh puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes"\n[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah\n\nAnd:\n"The](http://nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah\n\nAnd:\n"The) entire city is humbled and broken with the people (and even the animals) in sackcloth and ashes".\n\nI\'ve long adopted the idea from others that Floodland does cover the end of the world, so with that in mind these references seems to fit in with this idea, until I read that, I was lost on this songs meaning and think that in typical Eldritch style it might just be metaphorical. \n\nOn that last comment about "is it metaphorical"? I wondered to myself, \'Is this another song about his early relationships?\' A love life like Armageddon because of the pain it inflicted. \n\nWhat an incredible artist Andrew Eldritch is. Did I hear it in conversation, or did I see it? I cannot remember, but in my memory I always remember the idea that Alan Whicker (British TV (icon?)) said Eldritch was the most intelligent man he had ever met, and Whicker met with some astonishingly influential people throughout his career.